155,000ha allowed to be cut annually under 10MP

LUBOK ANTU: The National Land Council has set 155,000 hectares of forest allowed
to be cut annually under the 10th Malaysia Plan (10MP) compared to 170,000 hectares in the previous Plan
period.

Natural Resources and Environment Minister Datuk Seri Douglas Uggah said the
annual allowable cut (AAC) was set at that to ensure proper and effective forestry management planning.

“This is to balance timber yields with the forest size in line with the concept of
sustainable forest management and optimum timber production.”

He said this after launching the RM3mil Centre of Excellence for Orang Utan
Conversation in the Batang Ai National Park, Nanga Delok, about an hour by boat from here.

Uggah said that up to 2008, Sarawak had six million hectares of forest reserve out
of 14.43 million hectares in the whole country, with logging activities concentrated only in the production forests
while logging in the protected forests was not allowed.

Sarawak has a forest area of 8.23 million hectares or 66.9 per cent of the state’s
land area compared to 4.4 million hectares (56.7%) in Sabah and 5.85 million hectares (44.7%) in the
peninsula. — Bernama